


Aqua: Too Weak, Too Often

by Damselbinder



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Damsels in Distress, F/M, Kidnapping, bound and gagged
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:54:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28336527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Damselbinder/pseuds/Damselbinder
Summary: Following her liberation from the world of darkness, darkness hangs still on Aqua's graceful shoulders. She reflects on her failures, and deals with the fallout of her imprisonment. However, after she makes yet another not-so-great decision, she may find herself a prisoner once again...
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	1. Prologue

Normally when people describe terrible events in their lives as being like nightmares, they generally just mean these events were horrible, or particularly frightening. But for Aqua, there was simply no other way to think about her time in the Realm of Darkness. It was not merely that it had been terribly unpleasant, or full of hardship, but it had been truly dreamlike. She could remember so little of it. She could not think how long she had been there. She had been told it had been about twelve years but if the keyblade wielders who had rescued her had told her it had been three months or three _centuries_ , she'd have believed them in either case.  
  
Long had she languished in that hated place. The Keyblade Master had sacrificed much for the sake of Terra, the young man with whom she'd trained. With whom she'd grown up. He had been possessed by their greatest enemy, his identity subsumed, and after Aqua had defeated him in one final battle, he had sunk into deepest darkness - only to be saved by Aqua, who had sacrificed her armour and her keyblade to release him - only to doom herself. She'd wandered and wandered, aimless, helpless to escape, until finally she'd given in to her despair and loneliness - and only then had salvation come.  
  
Now she was safe. Safe and sound in the Realm of Light, and now she began to realise the... insanity of the vast prison in which she'd been trapped for so long.   
" _Why didn't I need to eat or drink? Why haven't I aged a day? Why hasn't my hair grown? Why don't my clothes reek if I haven't had anything else to wear for the whole time I was there?_ " These questions just hadn't occurred to her while she was in there. It seemed perfectly natural that she should wander, unchanging, eternal, forever. It was less, now that she thought about it, like she had been lost and found. It was more like she had died and been raised to life again.   
  
As soon as she had arrived in the tower of Yen Sid, the wizard, the first thing she had asked was for a bath. The fairies who attended Yen Sid had cleaned and repaired her clothes for her, and she had never felt literally cleaner in her life - but she didn't feel refreshed. That rush of joy upon realising she'd been saved had faded now, and the fair Keyblade Master had no joy in her heart at all.  
  
She found herself on a balcony, overlooking the cloudy void that surrounded Yen Sid's tower. She owed him a debt of gratitude: it was he who had orchestrated her liberation, marshalling this generation's warriors of light. Mickey, alongside whom she had fought many times before. Riku, a fellow master, and inheritor of Terra's keyblade. Axel and Kairi, two trainees. And lastly, the boy who had rescued her from darkness, who had kept at bay Xehanort and all his machinations - whether he'd known it or not - and who had pacified Aqua when the long shadow had finally overtaken her.  
" _No_ ," she thought. " _Don't put it like that. He didn't 'pacify' me. He_ defeated _me._ "  
  
Oh no, it wasn't just that. It wasn't just that this self-taught, shockingly naive boy - an adventurer more than a warrior, by any fair description - had taken her on in single combat, and he had won. Over a master. Over the greatest of Eraqus' pupils. And then - just to make sure that Aqua couldn't make her grand return with any pride whatsoever - he had watched her shameful blunder against Vanitas. Sure, she'd proven herself the superior fighter, but then she'd let Vanitas outsmart her, and knock her unconscious. And what had she said to this boy, just before she'd blocked him off from helping her, before her insistence on showing her strength had led to disaster?  
" _You've seen me too weak, too often_." Not often enough, as it had turned out.  
  
She clenched her teeth. Her knuckles whitened as she gripped the edge of the balcony. What could this boy think of her now, except that she was arrogant and stupid for refusing his help, with which she could have overpowered Vanitas easily? Then again, he was kind hearted to the point of being a _simpleton_. He was probably just glad she was alright.  
"That's how I _should_ be feeling," Aqua said to herself. She was back. Her dear little Ventus was back. She had immensely powerful allies for the coming battle against Xehanort, against whom it seemed impossible that Xehanort could prevail. There would be one more battle, and then at long, long last she could have her _life_ back. It was only when she began to wonder what exactly that life would look like that Ventus came in.  
  
"Hey, Aqua." There was a note of caution in his voice. He wasn't a genius, but he could tell Aqua wasn't all smiles and happiness as a result of her rescue. For him, his 'time away' had felt like a long sleep, some vague dreams about the heart to which his had been attached, and then a simple reawakening. Aqua, however, had not been rescued from sleep. She had been rescued from Hell, and he could feel it lingering about her.  
  
She didn't answer him immediately, so Ventus stood at the entrance to the balcony, watching her. He was young, still, and rather innocent of such things, but even he knew just how beautiful she was. She was slender as a reed, trimly sculpted and graceful. Her figure was that of a dancer's: feminine and lithe, but not delicate. There was strength in her arms, her smooth, exposed back, her shapely legs. Her short hair was the same ocean blue as her eyes, her face full of patience and dignity. Coolness without coldness. Softness without weakness. Strength without danger. There wasn't a trace of romance in his feelings, but Ventus loved her deeply and dearly.  
  
"Hello, Ven," she said at last, turning to him, the trails of her skirt swishing round her. Ventus saw her blue eyes just begin to water as she looked at him, something that she couldn't help, such was the depth of her relief that he was safe. He smiled back, and came closer to her.  
"Are you...uh, how are you feeling?" he asked.  
"I'm okay," she said, softly. She sat back on the edge of the balcony, crossing her long, lithe legs. The material of her long, black stockings creaked a little, like leather, the tops squeezing slightly into her bare thighs. She breathed deeply, her shapely, subtly ample bosom pressing against the tight fabric of her bodice, the eye rather drawn to it by the cross of pink fabric sectioning off her chest into quarters.  
  
"I can't believe how long we've been gone," Ventus said, simply because he didn't have much else to say. "When, uh, everything happened... Riku and Sora were just little kids."  
"Kairi too," Aqua replied. "The world went by without us."  
"Well we're back now," Ventus said, cheerfully. "Now all we need to do is to get Terra back. Then everything..." He couldn't finish. Aqua didn't have to tell him how unlikely it was that Terra could be retrieved. He hadn't been 'lost' like them. He had been taken. Scooped out so Xehanort could take his powerful body for himself. But even Aqua hadn't lost all hope, and she didn't want Ventus to lose it either, so she finished the thought:  
"Everything will go back to how it was."  
"Yeah. It'll be better, even! We've got all these new friends now. Sora and Riku, Kairi, the King, Lea - Goofy and Donald, even!" He touched his chest. "I feel... I feel like I already know them. Through Sora. There's..." He struggled to find the right way to express himself. "There's so many good people around us. The world seemed kinda scary back when we were training, but...how can the darkness win against all this light?"  
"Because so far the light has been unforgivably stupid."  
  
Aqua didn't know where those words had come from. If Ventus had said it she'd have chided him, and indeed his mouth was open in shock that she'd said what she'd said. But having heard it, Aqua was _more_ confident in the truth of her words than she'd been as she'd been saying them.  
"Wh...what do you mean?"  
"Ven... when you think about it, when you really think about everything that's happened, it's all because of how foolish we were. All of us."  
  
She stood up, sighing, as she recounted to Ventus the comedy of errors that had led them to where they now stood.  
"Terra let himself get completely manipulated by Xehanort. He spent years being taught how dangerous the power of darkness is, and as _soon_ as that old man appealed to his pride a little, he started giving into it. Xehanort even told him that he was the one who created Vanitas, and he _still_ didn't realise Xehanort was evil. When the three of us met up in Radiant Garden, he knew about Vanitas' nature and connection to you, but he _still didn't tell us_. He told you to go back home, but he didn't tell you that it was because Vanitas needed you to make himself complete. He was duped by just about everyone he met on his travels - it's no wonder what happened to him!"  
"Aqua..." Ventus made a conciliatory gesture, but Aqua had no intention of stopping.  
  
"Me? I decided it was a good idea to spy on Terra to make sure he was staying on the right path, just because Master Eraqus told me to, knowing that he'd take it badly. I could have gone with him. I could have gone with _you_ , and Xehanort never would have had the _chance_ to manipulate him. When he failed the Mark of Mastery I... I looked _down_ on him. I stopped trusting him, and I pushed him even further towards Xehanort. He thought he was doing what was right and all I did was wag my finger at him and insult his pride, when it was _my_ pride that pushed him away in the first place! And when I 'sacrificed' myself for him? When I stranded myself in the Realm of Darkness? It was pointless! It was _worse_ than pointless! All I did was leave Xehanort in his body, free to spread havoc. How many people did he hurt? How many people ended up turned into Heartless or just straight-up _killed_ because I saved him? He - he probably could have just opened a corridor of darkness to escape anyway! But no, _I_ had to save him. _I_ had to do it all myself!"  
  
She stood up, on the ledge of the balcony, her sense of balance all that was keeping her from plummeting over the side. She extended her hand, and in a soft flash, her keyblade appeared in her hand. Or rather, it was the keyblade that she _used_. It had not always belonged to her, but to her Master, Eraqus.  
"And Master Eraqus...he was the stupidest of us all. He let Master Xehanort into our Mark of Mastery exam. He didn't notice when Xehanort sabotaged it to make Terra fail. He sent Terra off by himself right when he needed guidance and friendship the most. He had me spy on Terra instead of working with him. He found out about Vanitas and you, and did he try to help? Did he protect you or fight Vanitas with you? Did he connect the dots with Master Xehanort's involvement? Did he call me or Terra back to join forces? No. He decided to _kill you_." She threw her weapon over the side, sending it tumbling into the misty abyss. Of course, a moment later, it simply reappeared in her hand. "We trained with him for years, and _years_." She threw the sword again, and it reappeared again. "But we were so unprepared." She tossed it again, it came back again. "We were useless. We were _worse_ than useless. So useless that we were beaten by _children_ who've never had any formal training!"  
  
Ventus stared at her, open-mouthed. Three times he tried to speak, three times he closed his mouth. He felt childish, not only because he too felt how foolish he had been, but because he realised what a child's view he'd had of his two friends. He had always thought of Aqua as a kind, gentle person, but he hadn't looked any deeper. Hadn't been able to. Yet this pride, this warrior's pride that ran deeper even than Terra's, he hadn't taken any notice of. He'd never thought why she had dedicated herself to this way of life. Indeed, as Aqua's self-effacement turned his thoughts cruelly inward, he began to think that he'd only ever thought of her as a member of their trio, and never as a person in and of herself.  
"I'm sorry," Ventus said, with as much sincerity as he could possibly muster. "I'm sorry Aqua. I wish I could take it all back. I wish I could have gone to the Realm of Darkness for you! I - I was stupider than any of you! But I - I'll listen this time! If - if you don't want to fight, or if you don't want _me_ to fight - or..."  
  
The next thing he knew, Aqua's arms were wrapped around him, and his cheek was pressing into her warm shoulder.  
"No, Ventus. Don't. You were strong, and brave, and you didn't hesitate for a _second_ to sacrifice yourself for us. You made some bad decisions, sure, but you were being selfless. If you have anything to apologise for, it's a lot less than anyone else. Do you understand me?"  
"Y-yeah," Ventus said, not convinced, but embarrassed about being comforted, and wanting Aqua to worry about herself first. "Sure, Aqua. Just...you've gotta stop being so hard on yourself too."  
"...alright. If you say so." She forced herself to smile. "Ven, could you give me a little time alone?"  
"Huh? Oh, sure." Scratching his head, he moved to go back inside. "Aqua... we will make things right. Okay?"  
"I know, Ven. I know," Aqua said. Neither of them were convinced.  
  
She stayed watching the stars for a little while. Her keyblade - Eraqus' keyblade - lingered in her hand, as if resentful that she'd tossed it away. She didn't like it, she realised. The Master Keeper, as it was called, was a powerful weapon, to be sure, but it didn't suit her. It was heavier than her own keyblade, Rainfell, and less suited to one so magically talented as herself. It was the weapon of a dedicated swordswoman, and while Aqua certainly was a fine swordswoman, she felt herself to be much more than that. A keyblade was an echo of the heart that wielded it, and she felt...incomplete without her own. But she was being silly: a keyblade was a keyblade, ultimately, and Rainfell was lost.  
  
Or was it? She had used it, sacrificed it and her armour to save Terra from plunging into shadow. Was there _any_ chance that he might have kept it? She had no idea, though, how she could possibly find that out. Trying to convince herself to get the notion out of her head, she elected to go back to the Tower, to see if there was any useful preparation she might do. She never found the answer to that question, because she walked straight into another skulking warrior.  
  
"Whoa-hey!" Axel started, having not paid her the slightest attention. He drew his keyblade, stumbled, dropped it, recalled it to his hand, stumbled again, and swore loudly before he realised that Aqua intended him no harm. "Oh, uhhh...you're...hang on, I'm having trouble figuring all this crap out...Aqua?"  
"You're Axel, then." Aqua stiffened slightly. As far as she knew, the lanky redhead had been on the other side until very recently.  
"Yeah. Well, Lea, but when I was in Organisation XIII I was called Axel but -" He waved his hands in surrender. "Forget that. I'm Axel, sure."  
The two had scarce little to say to each other. Indeed, Aqua was not wholly sure why Axel's presence was tolerated. Not only had he been on the side of their enemies, but he had personally harassed and kidnapped Kairi at one point. He seemed wholly unfit to be a keyblade wielder, much less a 'guardian of light'. She didn't particularly want to remain in his presence, so she mumbled an apology for bumping into him, and began to walk away.  
  
But Axel couldn't take the hint. "Something the matter?" he asked.  
"I'm fine, thank you," Aqua said, squeezing as much finality into her tone as she could.  
"You don't seem fine," he replied. "Look, lady, I won't pretend that I have a massive interest in your emotional life, or whatever, but we're gonna be fighting together tomorrow, right?"  
"What's your point?"  
"My point is, if your head isn't in the game, watching your back is gonna be a lot harder than it needs to be. Chains and weak links... you catch my drift."  
" _I_ am not the weak link in any chain, _Axel_ ," Aqua snapped, incensed that Axel - of all people - was deigning to give her advice. "If you really have to know, I'm a little frustrated that I have to use Master Eraqus' keyblade instead of my own. That's all."  
"What happened to yours?" He summoned his own, tossed it away, only for it to reappear in his hand. "Thought they were kinda sticky."  
  
Aqua felt an increasing urge to punch Axel. "It doesn't matter. I lost it, but I have a perfectly serviceable one here."  
"It's not, uh..." He raised his hands, palms open, about a foot-and-a-half apart. "About yay big, grey-and-blue, with a little spiky crescent at the end, is it?"  
"Yes," Aqua replied, surprised to find a word other than 'piss' or 'off' coming out of her mouth. "How did you know that?"  
"Our boss had a uh... a room he liked to chill out in. The 'Chamber of Repose'. Isa and I spied on him in there a couple times, and he just... sat there, chit-chatting. Nobody in there but him, some empty armour - and a keyblade."  
  
It was idiocy. The _height_ of idiocy. After the amount of stupidity, from her and Terra and everyone else, one would have thought that Aqua would fly screaming from anything that even resembled a bad idea. But Aqua, for all her many virtues, was not a perfect warrior. Her skill was great. Her power, vast. Her nobility, unquenchable. Her judgement, however? Her judgement was about as good as one could expect from a student of Eraqus.  
"Where is it?" Aqua asked.  
And, because he hadn't quite made enough bad decisions in his life, Axel told her.


	2. The Battle

Radiant Garden. Hollow Bastion. Whatever. It had a lot of bad memories for Aqua, and she had no pleasure in going there. Well, alright it had _one_ bad memory, but since that one bad memory was Aqua tumbling into hellish darkness, one could forgive her for her unease. The town had changed since last she'd been there: it looked rather like it had been destroyed and then rebuilt. She could have spent some time investigating, but she was not there to sightsee. She was there to get her keyblade back. She was there to get _herself_ back.  
  
She made her way to the most imposing building she could find: the great tower that loomed over the rest of the town. The tower of Ansem the Wise, another man who had threatened the whole of reality by his foolishness. Another man who had been betrayed and deceived by Xehanort. When everything was done, Aqua would give him a _very_ stern talking to. Or elbow him in the gut. Or both. She made a beeline for Ansem's Tower, feeling uncomfortable at the amount of anger she was carrying within.  
  
"Hey!" There were two men in her path. Both broad, and muscular, one wielding a sword, the other a lance, both frowning and serious with solid, square jawlines. For a moment Aqua was very confused: both men, looking completely identical to how they looked now, had been guarding Ansem's castle the last time Aqua had been there, ten years earlier. They hadn't aged a day.  
"Don't take another step," one of them, the one with somewhat inadvisable dreadlocks, barked at her. "Who are you, girl?"  
"My name is Aqua. I have business here. Step aside, please."  
"Madam," the swordsman with orange hair replied, "we are under strict instructions to admit no-one." At least this one was capable of being polite. Still, Aqua was tiring of the delay.  
"Ienzo knows me," Aqua explained. "I'm a friend. Or rather, I'm an enemy of Xehanort."  
"Easy enough to say," the dreadlocked guard grunted. "But I've learned not to be trusting. You could be a thief. You could be an assassin. And frankly, there's something about you I just don't _like_."  
"Dilan," the swordsman said, with a weariness that suggested he had to put up with this sort of thing a lot, "why don't you stay and watch her, and I'll just ask Ienzo if he knows her."  
"No," Dilan said. "If Ienzo had been expecting visitors, he would have told us. He said not to let _anyone_ in while he was preparing Roxas' replica, and it's an instruction I intend to follow."  
  
Aqua felt a pang of sympathy. These two were just doing their jobs. Dilan was being unpleasant and surly, but considering the deadliness of their enemy, and the grievous importance of defeating Xehanort's forces, Aqua's little personal quest paled in importance. But a timeless eternity in a hell-dimension had not taught her to deal with situations diplomatically. Still, she was a Keyblade Wielder - an ambassador, of sorts. "Gentlemen," she said, "I am an ally. If I were one of Xehanort's organisation, I could have opened a corridor of darkness and gone in without your ever knowing."  
" _We_ are well aware of the capabilities of Xehanort's minions," Dilan growled, with a hint of resentment that his recompletion had robbed him of this power.   
"Then," Aeleus said, "we know that she's right, Dilan." He turned to Aqua. "I remember you. Years ago you protected Hollow Bastion from a great beast - you saved a child from death."  
Aqua was surprised he remembered. She barely remembered it herself - it was ages ago.  
"She has done more for the side of right than we ever did," Aeleus said to his comrade who, with a weary sigh, relented and moved aside. "Please, go in."  
"Thank you," Aqua said, bowing graciously. She walked inside with slinky grace, and both men had to own that they stole a glance as the wispy skirts of her costume momentarily revealed her bare thighs.  
"If she turns out to be Demyx in disguise... " Dilan growled, before locking his eyes with Aeleus' and saying, with deadly, grave seriousness: "... then you owe me an iced cream."  
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
  
Aqua moved swiftly through the entranceway, a winding series of corridors with a chequerboard floor, until she made it to what she could only suppose was the main laboratory. Another wave of the Master Keeper opened it - and Aqua's jaw dropped.  
"What... how did he build this?!" she gasped. It was _huge_ , not just tall but vast in all directions, a huge chamber at least two-hundred metres tall, and stretching off so far in front of Aqua that she couldn't see where it ended, a great bright light coming from generators - or _some_ kind of machines - built into the walls, dazzling Aqua, making the whole place hard to look at. But the scale of it was so incredible that Aqua couldn't look away. She moved towards a railing in front of her, and discovered that the laboratory was even larger than she'd thought: it didn't only stretch upwards and outwards, but downwards: Ansem the Wise had had a great excavation done, dug deeply downwards into the earth, leading to a huge, flat platform, surrounded by a cavernous emptiness. Aqua stared at it in disbelief. Why had Ansem done this?  
" _Researching the heart..._ " Yes, that was it. Mickey had told her a little about Ansem's experiments, his quest to find the heart's essence. But he had plunged too deep, and unleashed the same darkness that Aqua had fought in her imprisonment into the world of light: the Heartless. More foolishness. More hubris. The world seemed suffused with it. And always it was the innocent who suffered. How many had been transformed into Heartless following Ansem's experiments? How many had Xehanort killed because Aqua had allowed him to live?  
  
But no: Aqua was being unfair. Ansem wasn't the one who'd unleashed the Heartless: it had been his apprentice, the one who'd stolen his name, split himself into two and founded Organisation XIII. Xehanort, the villain who had murdered Aqua's master and stolen Terra's powerful young body for himself. So it wasn't really Ansem's fault after all. It was Aqua's.  
  
With this unhappy epiphany, Aqua descended a long set of steel stairs, following Axel's instructions. It was to this base, this great platform that Ansem had carved the earth aside to make space for, that Aqua was going. For it was here - if Axel knew what the hell he was talking about, which was by no means certain - that Xehanort had kept her armour, her keyblade, in the Chamber of Repose. She came out onto the bottom level, saw that the great platform stretching out in front of her had a seam running right down the middle: it _opened_. Again, she raised high the Master Keeper, channelling her own power through it. Though the sealed chamber before her had an electronic lock, Aqua visualised a physical keyhole. She pointed at it with the Master Keeper, and fired a pure, white beam of light directly through it. There was a great, echoing, clanking sound - and the doorway opened.  
  
Vast steel shutters began with a mechanical, grinding sound to pull apart, revealing another long stairway, built into the walls, made out of the same not-quite-metal, not-quite-plastic material that most of the gigantic laboratory was constructed from. Aqua didn't wait for it to open all the way, though. Hell, she wasn't patient enough to use the stairs. She leapt, her body's exquisite litheness and her magical prowess sending her far forward with a single jump. She spun in mid-air, the trails of her clothes swirling around her like water. She cast a simple charm on herself, a low level gravity spell, which slowed her descent to survivable levels. Still, the speed she allowed herself spoke of a hard won fearlessness. She struck the ground feet-first with a softly buzzing thud, one which faded to nothing as her magic dispersed itself.  
  
" _It's here_." As soon as Aqua landed she could sense the presence of Rainfell somewhere in this complex. It was a hazy, distant sense: she couldn't yet summon it to herself. But she was close enough. All she had to do - all she had to do was _touch_ it, and it would be hers again. She launched into a sprint. Had she not done so, she might have taken greater stock of what was around her. This hidden area, this lower level, was very different from the rest of the complex. Its walls were stark white, glowing softly, but it could not really be described as plain. No, there was a church-like softness to it, to the echoing hush of every sound, of Aqua's pointed boot-heels against the corridor's hard floors, of her soft breath. There was a sense of the sacred in the symmetry and beauty of its construction. This place was not a laboratory: it was a _shrine_. But Aqua did not pay attention to this, did not notice anything unusual. So single-minded, in fact, was her purpose that she did not notice the two globes of inky-black light that manifested at the bottom of the great stairway. Nor did she notice the two cloaked figures who emerged from them.  
  
But Aqua's focus was unbroken. She ran at full-tilt towards the door at the end of the corridor, feeling the connection between her and Rainfell beginning to rekindle in earnest. She was about to hurl the Master Keeper itself at the last barrier in her path, but just before she did the door opened of its own accord: evidently whoever had built this place realised that anyone who could get past the massive doors separating this part of the building from the rest of Ansem's lab could probably bypass this last door without effort. The result was Aqua entering swiftly and easily - and she almost cried out with relief.  
  
It was there. It was there. In this strange, round chamber, with it austere, metal throne, lay Aqua's beloved Rainfell. It had just been plopped onto the ground, lying next to the empty pieces of her armour. She almost cried out - it sang to her, and she had not known that she could care so much for an inanimate object. But it wasn't _just_ an inanimate object: it was a part of her. It was her warrior's pride, her spirit given form. She lifted her arm, reached gingerly towards it. But before her hand could grasp it, she lowered her arm again.  
  
That is to say, her arm lowered. It didn't lower because Aqua had second thoughts about reclaiming Rainfell. It lowered because Aqua had lost the capacity to raise it. She'd lost the capacity to raise it because an arc of electricity had struck her directly in the back.  
"AUUUGHHH!!" Aqua cried out, her body convulsing and shaking as the lightning hit her, every muscle in her body stiffening and contracting, control over her lithe figure stolen from her. "Wh.. who...?" Aqua groaned, her jaw clenching tight. She tried to raise her keyblade, but she couldn't move her fingers, her wrist. And then as soon as the attack had started, it stopped, and Aqua felt her body slacken, relax. "Unnhh..." she moaned, as her long legs gave way beneath her. Limp and quivering, the slender maiden tumbled to her knees, the trails of her outfit flapping about her as she fell, before with an anguished sigh she fell flat on her front, twitching and gasping, but otherwise immobilised. She heard a soft, wispily metallic sound as the Master Keeper vanished from her hand. "No...!" Aqua groaned.  
"Uh, actually," her attacker replied, "pretty much 'yes'."  
  
The woman lowered her hood, revealing some close-cropped, aggressively yellow hair and a face with pretty, but sharp and rather vicious features. She was quite short, rake-thin, clad in a long, black coat and a tight, form fitting outfit of the same material. "Yes, yes, yes!" she crowed. "It's true! You _can_ get totally dunked on if you've got your back turned! You _are_ weak enough that one shot was enough to take you out! You _were_ stupid when you decided to come here all by herself." The woman in question strutted towards Aqua, twirling a set of short, ornately shaped, gold-yellow daggers between her thin fingers. Her grin, her strut, her whole manner shrieked out cruelty. "Marluxia," she said to her companion, "why are keyblade wielders always so _stupid_?"  
  
The blonde's ally lowered his hood as well. His features were almost more feminine than hers, his hair longer, rose-pink. But though his features were softer, there was a kind of... gentle evil in his eyes. He did not look at his ally, to whom he was dressed identically. His eyes were focused entirely on Aqua: her slender, womanly body; the exposed skin of her thighs and her trim, smooth back; the lovely, dark-blue shade of her hair, and most especially the look of pain and confusion on her beautiful face.  
"It's really very simple, Larxene," Marluxia explained. "Keyblades are passed on down the generations. One wielder chooses another. So the stupid keep choosing the stupid. Take you, for instance," Marluxia said, now addressing Aqua herself. "Aqua, isn't it?"  
"Back... off!" Aqua growled, her jaw still clenched, her body coursing with sparks.  
Marluxia ignored her, and went on. "You see, Aqua, I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to come here. I was sure that Xemnas' instructions to have us keep a watch on his old haunt were quite redundant. Obviously I underestimated just how dense you were."  
  
Larxene strutted closer, looking down at the fallen warrior with a heartless smile. "So, what, do we kill her?" Larxene asked.  
"No," Marluxia replied. "Our... _esteemed superior_ ordered us to bring her back with us."  
"Hottie like that?" Larxene giggled. "Can't say I'm too surprised he wants her alive."  
" _What?_ " Aqua thought, beginning to realise the seriousness of her peril. " _Xemnas wants them to... capture me? Why_?"  
"Oh, I don't think he just wants her as decoration for his lair," Marluxia said. "No, as... appealing a prospect as that would be, I imagine he wants her Heartless and her Nobody. You know," he added, not sounding entirely fascinated by his work, "the usual."  
"Whatever," Larxene said. "Let's just get her out of here." She stood right over Aqua, puzzling over the problem of how to pick her up. She took note of Aqua's revealing, tight shorts, which highlighted ever so readily the contours of her hips and her rump. "Heh," Larxene laughed. "Quite the little tush on this bluebird, huh?" She reached down to pick Aqua up.  
"Ah, now, Larxene," Marluxia said, with a note of concern, "keyblade wielders are _dense_ , but -"  
" _Esuna_."  
  
Larxene was fast. As soon as she heard the word, the word for a curative spell that would restore Aqua's freedom of movement, she leapt backwards, throwing two knives at Aqua as she moved to a safer position. She did it with such speed that Marluxia could barely keep up with her movements. But it was not fast enough. Before her heeled boots had even touched the ground, she was hit square in the torso with a sphere of concentrated wind magic. But the magic didn't propel her away from Aqua, but towards her. Specifically, towards Aqua's right foot, which Aqua buried hard into Larxene's stomach, knocking her flat and leaving her shocked, in great pain, and gasping desperately for air.  
Marluxia, for his part, didn't seem all that concerned with his comrade's fate. He watched Aqua leap skilfully to her feet, drawing the Master Keeper again, and shook his head. "You ought to have let me finish, Larxene," he said. In his hand, with a flash of rose petals and blood-red light, appeared a long, curved, scythe. "I was going to say: 'Keyblade wielders are _dense_... but that doesn't mean they're _weak'_."  
"You know," Aqua said, taking a graceful fighting stance, "I couldn't agree more." And then, just to make sure that it was she who had the last word, Aqua attacked.  
  
It was something of a stuttering start. Aqua really did begin to lunge, to make Marluxia raise his guard, but she never intended to strike him with her blade. But with a subtle, near imperceptible movement of her fingers, Aqua began her real attack. As Marluxia moved to counter her strike, he did not notice that his hair was beginning to stand on end - not until he had bigger concerns, anyway. He had not even lifted his scythe by ten centimetres before Aqua's thundaga spell struck.  
  
"AAAGGGHHHH!!" Marluxia cried, and from his roar of pain Aqua thought she might already have won. But though he looked human, Marluxia was anything but. His body was not made of flesh: he was a Nobody, and he was much more resilient than he looked. So though the thunder pounded him, though the Aqua poured into him far more than what Larxene had used on her, he took Aqua's spell on the chin, and cast a spell of his own.  
  
Slamming the hilt of his weapon into the ground, Marluxia summoned a great cascade of rose-coloured energy, erupting directly under Aqua's feet. She couldn't dodge in time, and was subsumed within the energies of her foe's spell. But as it dissipated, Marluxia saw that he too had not done enough: Aqua was surrounded by a sphere of energy, formed of shimmering hexagons of light. She was completely unharmed. Growling, Marluxia channelled his powers through himself, sinking into a deep red shadow that he made beneath himself, combining his essence with that of his scythe until his scythe was all there was. Aqua had never fought a Nobody before, had never seen anything quite like this. She was caught rather off guard, then when his scythe began spinning like a buzzsaw, and moving at high speed towards her.  
  
It closed on her in a second. Aqua cartwheeled out of the way, but it followed her, turning almost as fast as she herself could. " _He can still see me?_ " Aqua thought, quite impressed with Marluxia's abilities. Still, she knew what to do. A powerful enough gravity spell would at the very least wrench her enemy's weapon from his grasp, if not smack Marluxia directly into the ceiling above her. It would take an instant's concentration to prepare it, but the next evasion would buy her that moment. Or rather, it would have done if Larxene hadn't got involved again.  
  
The Savage Nymph was a Nobody as well, and Aqua's attack had not been able to put her down for long. Screeching with rage, she darted with blinding speed at Aqua, hurling daggers at her, two with each throw. Aqua blocked them alright, even deflecting one right back at its owner. But Larxene was inhumanly quick, and she simply caught her dagger and threw it again. Marluxia hadn't dropped out of the runnings either, and he continued to gun for Aqua, swirling around her like a deadly whirlpool as she weaved between scythe and dagger, retaliating with magic of her own, but never magic potent enough to put her enemies down - she didn't have the space to prepare it. She needed to make that space.  
  
"Fire!" Aqua cried, and three spears of flame erupted from her weapon, seeking Larxene like guided missiles. She shielded herself with a barrier of electricity, but the spears were never meant to hurt her. Only to _blind_ her. They exploded against her barrier with a violent white light, dazzling Larxene's eyes. She expected Aqua to take advantage, to rush in and attack, but she underestimated her enemy. Aqua didn't run in: she _threw_ the Master Keeper right at Larxene. Her guard was woefully insufficient, and Aqua delivered a crushing blow, breaking two of Larxene's knives, and smashing her against the nearest wall. She cried out in pain, and then crumpled, defeated, to the ground.  
  
But Marluxia still threatened Aqua. She could not both throw the Master Keeper at Larxene _and_ use it to defend herself, she did not have time to move out of the way of Marluxia's increasingly accurate strikes, or to prepare any spell powerful enough to be effective. But she didn't need to. For, right as the scythe bore down on her, she swung her arm backwards, catching the scythe's blade in the teeth of her weapon, and twisting it, pulling Marluxia out of the void he had created, and throwing him up into the air. And how had she done this, when the Master Keeper was already protecting her from Larxene? Simple. She wasn't using the Master Keeper. She was using Rainfell.  
  
Marluxia didn't get it. He'd been able to sense that Aqua's keyblade was out of her hand - that's why he'd attacked when he did. But now she had a weapon in her hand, a different one from before. In the split second when Marluxia was moving through the air above Aqua, he realised the extent to which he'd been put on the back foot, and decided to abandon Larxene to Aqua's mercy. He began to open a corridor of darkness to escape, but Aqua didn't give him the chance. She pointed her keyblade at him, and before even the wispiest shadows of his corridor had emerged, she pelted him with a furious barrage of energy rain, juggling him in the air for several seconds, before a final explosion sent him crashing upwards into the ceiling, and then collapsing back down to the ground.  
  
To Marluxia's credit, he wasn't quite beaten. Yes his jacket was riddled with holes. Yes he was gasping for breath. Yes his scythe fell to the ground and vanished in a puff of magic. Yes he could barely stand. But he _could_ stand. He couldn't do much else, though.  
"You said keyblade wielders were dense," Aqua said, striding towards Marluxia with a catwalk-model's eye-catchingly confident and feminine strut. "Two things there: first, I'm not a keyblade wielder. I'm a keyblade _master_." She toyed skilfully with the blade in her hand, its every contour a joy to her. She had not known how different it would feel having it back. It was less than half the weight of Master Keeper, a quick and slender weapon. She could feel it boosting her magical strength, too, supplementing its master's abundant talents. It was _hers_. "And secondly?" she said, now standing directly over Marluxia. "I don't need to hear that from someone who goes into battle with _farming equipment_." She struck him in the head before he could retort, knocking him unconscious.  
  
Aqua took a long, low breath as she stood over her fallen enemies. It was like some switch had been flipped inside her head. Being rescued from the Realm of Darkness hadn't done it. Seeing Ventus again hadn't done it. But victory - victory had done it. Rainfell had done it. It was like she'd been given her soul back: only now, really, had Aqua come back to life.  
"Unnhh..." Larxene groaned, just about holding onto consciousness. She couldn't use her powers. Couldn't summon a corridor. Could barely move. And then just to top it all off, she felt a blade at her neck. "Wh...?" Her chin was tilted upwards, and she saw Aqua standing over her.  
"Your master. Xehanort," Aqua said. "I want you to give him a message for me."  
"Kiss my ass, bluebird," Larxene spat. "I'm not -"  
Aqua pressed the blade closer against Larxene's neck. "Actually it's less a message. More a question: does he remember me?" She stood tall, proud. Victorious and furious. "Does he remember that I'm the one who shattered the X-Blade? Does he remember that I'm the one that beat him in single combat? When he was at the _height_ of his power?" Before coming here, before reclaiming Rainfell, she was not the person who had done that. She was now. She was Master Aqua once more. "Well, if he doesn't, remind him. And tell him that I'm coming for him."  
"Oh, I'm quite sure that he remembers you..."  
  
The voice was deep, booming. Its tone was grandiose and theatrical, but toneless, as though delivered by a skilled actor who had not yet been told what emotion his character was meant to be feeling. The man from whom it came looked just like the other two, clad in the same black cloak. But his hood remained up, and he was taller and broader than even Marluxia. As Aqua turned on her third foe, he spread his arms wide, like a demagogue mid-speech.  
"To think," he said, "that there could be a warrior capable of besting the savagery of Larxene and Marluxia at once. Know that I do not judge them ill for their failure - I only raise my esteem for you, Master Aqua." He bowed low. "I honour you, Keyblade Master."  
"Honour me by leaving," Aqua shot back.  
"That... I cannot do." The cloaked figure lowered their hood. They revealed shaggy, silver hair; a masculine, handsome face. And though his skin was deeply tanned, and his eyes a threatening amber, his features were... disturbingly familiar.  
  
"Who are you?" Aqua asked, finding that she was afraid of the answer.  
"I am nothing," he replied. "But the name I gave myself was... Xemnas. I am the superior of Organisation XIII. But, no..." He placed his hand on his forehead, in a show of self-effacement. Every movement, every-gesture, was over-the-top, as though he were a machine not-quite-accurately imitating human behaviour. "I _was_ the superior. But within the True Organisation XIII I am as much a puppet as the lowliest, most feckless neophyte of the Old. I play the role that has been given to me, to bring Xehanort's plan to fruition. For I am Xehanort. To serve him is to serve myself. And yet, perhaps you sense... that Xehanort is not all I am."  
"I don't sense anything," Aqua replied. "And if I did, I wouldn't care. You're another enemy in my path. Defend yourself."  
"... If you insist."  
  
From Xemnas' hands, two beams of pure light extended. He held them like swords, lowering them as he raised himself an inch or two into the air. "I can no longer wield a Keyblade," he said. "But I am not to be dismissed. My power is over Nothingness itself. What lies between light and darkness - that belongs only to me. That, even Xehanort does not possess."  
"Does that make you feel special?" Aqua said. "You said it yourself. You're a puppet for Xehanort. You don't matter to him. Nothing matters to him except his ambition. Do you understand that? Do you care? _Can_ you care?" She frowned. "You're a Nobody - that I know. What's left behind when someone loses their heart to darkness. But does that make you... not human? Can you feel emotions or not? Your friends there certainly seemed able to get angry, at least. No-one's explained it to me properly."  
Xemnas looked heavenward. He raised his hands as if trying to catch rain. "My comrades... my companions of the Organisation... many of them began to feel the burgeoning of a new heart within them. Whether it was through connecting with another, like the traitor Axel, or through craven terror like Vexen - many of my kin have grown towards the light." He looked back down, locked eyes with Aqua. "But not I. I am empty. I feel... nothing. I am, perhaps, the last true Nobody left. I am surrounded by companions, yet I am alone."  
  
Xemnas disturbed her. She knew why. Hearing that empty, hollow voice coming from that face... it was disgusting.  
"I see you notice," Xemnas said. "There is a connection between us, isn't there? You are the reason that I built this place... the Chamber of Repose. I spoke with you... many times. Why?" He stepped closer to her. "Why did I come here time, after time, after time, to seek audience with broken armour and an unloved sword? I feel no passions within my breast... yet I was pulled here by the echo of another's passions. We are... connected."  
"Perhaps," Aqua said, "but I couldn't care less. And you can't care at all!"  
"That may be so," Xemnas replied, "but though the heart is strong... and yours is mighty indeed... you cannot -"  
He'd been about to say 'you cannot overcome me'. However, when Aqua charged in, caught him completely off guard with a barrage of Blizzard magic, and then struck at him with a series of vicious Keyblade strikes, Xemnas was faintly glad that he had not finished speaking.  
  
Aqua knew his face, even if it was not _quite_ like the one in her memory. She knew what he was, and why he was. And rage boiled within her. With every graceful stroke of her blade, every dancer's leap that saved her from a thrust of Xemnas' sword, or bolt of anti-energy that Xemnas' Nobody-nature gave him power over, that rage only built. When she counter-attacked, she was ferocious. She could not quite match his physical strength blow for blow, but she did her level best to overpower Xemnas with her skill. She got right up close, gripping her keyblade with both hands, taking advantage of the fact that his duel-wielding stance would reduce the force of each strike. But though she fought quite evenly with him, she could feel the terrible power behind his blows. A familiar power.  
"Yes," Xemnas boomed, "you cannot deny it now, if ever you could. You know this strength. You know to whom I owe it: the man who has bound us, Master Aqua. The Fool of Fools: the Master of Naught but Witlessness - your dear, woefully stupid Terra."  
  
It was true. It was terribly true. Aqua already knew it, that Xehanort had been in Terra's body when he split himself into a Heartless and a Nobody. Of course that Nobody - Xemnas - would resemble Terra. But hearing that dead voice from his mouth that was not quite his mouth, seeing Xemnas swing his blades with strength that was not quite his strength, that brought home the horror of it to the lithe warrior. Her oldest, most cherished friend was part of this soulless monster. Perhaps Xemnas had been pressing this realisation into her deliberately, to put her off guard. Perhaps he meant to shock and overwhelm her with this knowledge. But if he did, he'd failed. All he did was make her angrier.  
  
Aqua rushed in at full speed, challenging Xemnas' swordsmanship directly. The two warriors clashed, Aqua's grace and skill against Xemnas' speed and strength. But it was not an even match - the Nobody was the inferior. Finding himself less favourably positioned than he'd anticipated, he suddenly threw up a barrier - a shimmering, chequerboard affair - catching Aqua flat footed as her strike bounced off it. But he elected to give himself space, rather than press his attack. This hesitation was a mistake.  
  
Xemnas hadn't been paying attention. He had been looking too hard at Aqua. It was not that she was beautiful - though she was - but he could not keep his eyes off her. Her trim figure, her movement, even her breath... something within him was - was connected to it. So when he stepped backwards onto the semicircular row of magical mines that Aqua had laid behind him during their exchange, he was not aware of his error until, if you'll forgive the expression, it blew up in his face.  
  
Six explosions, with Xemnas right at their epicentres. To this Aqua added three successive Fission Firaga spells, a storm of Thundaza magic, and a direct barrage with her 'Ragnarok' shotlock. Xemnas was injured, but not defeated: his body was much sturdier even than Marluxia's. But Aqua's attack was not finished either. Leaping forward like a gazelle, she swept aside the cloud of smoke she'd made around Xemnas with her magic, and dived into a closs-quarters affray.  
  
This time, however, Xemnas was ready for her. He had taken stock of her style, and adapted. Her Keyblade, Rainfell, was much shorter than either of his swords, and she could only just about meet the strength of one of his arms with two of hers. He tried, then, to strike deliberately at her blade with both of his swords together. He did just that, and his blow landed true, catching the blade in its flat centre, and sending Rainfell spinning out of Aqua's right hand. She was disarmed, and all Xemnas had to do was swing his energy swords the other way, and the battle would be over. The problem was, he'd been misdirected again. When Aqua's right hand had been divested of Rainfell, she had summoned the Master Keeper in her left. And Xemnas had left himself completely undefended. Aqua could have been merciful. She wasn't.  
  
A blow straight across his throat. Another across his face. He belatedly raised his weapons and blocked the Master Keeper's next strike, but was struck in the hip with Rainfell, recalled to Aqua's hand. Another blow, and another, and another, and another, and another, battering Xemnas, tearing into his non-flesh, smashing his weapons into nothingness, and then sending him spinning to the floor.  
"Uggggghhhhhhhhhh...!" Xemnas groaned, the cry of a body in pain with no emotion behind it. "How... how can you have strength like this?"  
"It isn't my strength," Aqua hissed, kicking Xemnas when he tried to rise. "It's your weakness. You say there's something of Terra in you - but there isn't! It's all outside. You don't have his power, his resolve. He could match me. He was my equal, in strength if nothing else. Even... even the darkness within him was _his_ darkness, _his_ passion, _his_ rage and sorrow and regret that made him what he was! You? You're an empty shadow. You _are_ nothing. You're not Terra. You're not Xehanort. You're not a man at all. You were never meant to exist!"  
  
Xemnas laughed. Bloody and battered he laughed. Low and hollow and echoing he laughed, with no mirth, nor pleasure, nor feeling of any kind.  
"You could not be more correct," he said, grandly. "Even my name is a joke - an echo of another's, taken by another self to mock another... real man."  
It was only in victory, with the heat of battle beginning to die, that Aqua realised she felt sympathy for this... creature. He was not the one who had stolen Terra. He was not the one who had trapped her in the Realm of Darkness. He was human enough for Aqua to consider him evil, but she did pity him. "I suppose I should be grateful," she said. "You've shown me there's _nothing_ of him in you. When we meet in battle again, I'll have no reason to hesitate."  
"You are... mistaken..." Xemnas pronounced, spreading his hands wide. "I may not have all of Terra's power... I may not have any of his soul... but traces of him linger. When I was split... when my heart became 'Ansem' and I was left as 'Xemnas'... Xehanort had not anticipated how much of him would be pooled in the former, and drained from the latter." He struggled to rise, couldn't quite do it. "Perhaps... perhaps that is why I felt so dearly the need... to surround myself with my twelve companions... to forge the kinds of links that Terra once clung so tightly to..."  
"You have no heart. You've admitted as much. Your connections mean nothing."  
"Oh, no, no... they may not give me... feelings. But they are meaningful. Or have you forgotten the technique that Eraqus taught us?"  
"What are you talking about?"  
"The Dimension Link."  
  
Distantly did Aqua remember this power, the capacity to channel the powers of those with whom she had formed bonds. It had been a useful crutch in her early days as a warrior, but she hadn't used it for years. So she did not quite understand what she was seeing when Xemnas linked himself to the burgeoning heart of one of his companions - and a flower appeared in his right hand. It looked, to Aqua, like a form of Cure magic, and so she moved _towards_ Xemnas to stop him using it. Had she known that he was accessing the powers of Marluxia, as he could access the powers of all members of his Organisation, she would have known to move _away_. But she didn't: Xemnas blew on it, and the petals were swiftly carried on a gust of wind into Aqua's face.  
"What the -?" She brushed them aside, raised her Keyblades, as the petals tickled her pretty face. "What was that, some kind of smokescreen?" She turned around, seeing if Xemnas was trying to distract her from an attack by Marluxia or Larxene, but they were still very much out of action. "I've had enough of this," Aqua said. "I'm -"  
  
It hit her like a surging wave of warm water. A sudden pulse of light-headedness. She blinked a couple of times, and seemed to have thrown it off, but it hit her again, harder this time. "Wh... what's... ?" She felt disoriented. Dizzy. "Unhhh..." Her fingertips were tingling. The weight of her Keyblades seemed to be growing, her arms themselves seemed as made of granite. She fell backwards two steps, almost tripping over.  
"The graceful master... stumbling?" Xemnas said. He tried to stand again, and this time, he succeeded. "It hardly seems possible."  
" _He... did something to me... !_ " Aqua realised, and clumsily struck at Xemnas. He was so injured that these artless blows did hit him, and knocked him to one side. But Aqua wasn't stupid enough to press the attack. That feeling of light-headedness wasn't going away, and she moved past him as fast as she dared, swaying as she walked, trying to reach the stairwell that led back to Ansem's laboratory.  
  
But Xemnas was not about to let her go that easily. Aqua felt a hand on her smooth, bare shoulder, and she spun around, striking Xemnas again. But this blow had little force, and Xemnas was moved back barely a couple of inches.  
"Stay... back..." Aqua demanded. "Or I'll..."  
"You will... ?" Xemnas shrugged, spreading out his hands as he did in a grandiose imitation of befuddlement. "You will do nothing. To do anything one must... have power. And power is what I have taken from you."  
  
All too late did Aqua realise the truth of Xemnas' words. Her soft shoulders sagged, her slender, womanly legs trembled. She could barely even hold onto Rainfell and the Master Keeper, much less use them. Her vision was darkening, the noble dignity of her countenance fading to a narcotised, eye-fluttering distress. " _Weak... I - I'm getting weak..._ " She stood, staring at Xemnas as he loomed over her, her sleepy, ocean-blue eyes wide locked onto that handsome, all-too familiar face. But it was not fear that kept her stock-still. It was _lack_ of fear. One fights or one flees, but Aqua's discipline and honour as a warrior had torn the latter possibility out of her. It was fight or... nothing.  
  
Yet as Xemnas reached for her again, she could not help but _try_ to fight. She raised Rainfell, and just about managed to swing it again, but with such feebleness that Xemnas _caught_ her strike in his hand, caught her slim wrist. She swung the Master Keeper, and Xemnas caught her right wrist too. He pressed them together, wrapped one hand around both wrists, and lifted her up.  
"Unnnhhhhhh...!" Aqua moaned, as Xemnas hauled her up to him, until their faces were level with each other. Aqua was dangling almost a foot from the ground, her feet kicking in empty air, her long legs languorously writhing against each other, her rubbery stockings creaking as they moved across each other. "Let... me go... you... you..."  
"Hush, noble master," Xemnas said, pressing a gloved palm over Aqua's soft, pretty mouth.  
"Mhhh...mhhhhhhh..." she protested, feeling her lips sealed, feeling Xemnas' strong fingers clamping over her jaw, her cheeks. "Mrrghhhmphhh... mhhhh!" She couldn't resist. She was too weak: the warm drowsiness that Xemnas had hexed her with had spread through her completely. Her limbs, her eyelids were heavy; her breathing was deep and slow, but with a kind of desperation behind it; her senses dulled. But she could feel Xemnas' hands on her, grasping and smothering her, dominating her. She was furious, but had no power to express that fury.  
  
"The mighty Aqua," Xemnas intoned. "Scourge of Xehanort. Vanquisher of the X-Blade. Greatest of Eraqus' pupils. As mighty as a rainstorm... as slender and supple... as a lily."  
"Mhh...mmhhhhphh..." Aqua could barely keep her eyes open. She could feel herself slipping under. " _Idiot..._ " she thought. " _Idiot... why - why did I... come here? Just for a weapon... a weapon I didn't need...! And now I'm... I'm..._ " She could not bring herself to think it.  
"I know of your long ordeal," Xemnas said, "and had I pity, I would give it to you now, Master Aqua. How exhausted must your spirit be... how needful must you be of rest... take it now."  
  
Xemnas released Aqua's wrists, holding her up just with the hand wrapped around her mouth and jaw. Aqua's arms flopped limply down. Her slim fingers relaxed, letting go of her swords. They fell to the ground, clattering loudly as they bounced on the hard floor, before vanishing into light.  
"Nhhhh..." Aqua moaned, watching her blades vanished, confused by her somnolent, ensorcelled haze into thinking that they were gone for good. She hung in the air, muzzled, limp and sleepy, no longer able even to feign protest. " _Defeated_..." she lamented. " _I've been defeated... again..._ "  
  
Xemnas saw this too, for he lowered Aqua to her feet. The maiden's knees shook, so he took his hand from her mouth, held her by her upper arms, his fingers pressing hard into her peach-pink skin. Aqua could barely hold her head up, could barely look him in the eye.  
"Your exhaustion... is palpable. I urge you... to take the rest that is your just desert."  
"Can't..." Aqua mumbled. "Can't... let it..."  
"Sleep, Aqua," Xemnas said, the deep bass of his voice rumbling through her, cajoling her into profound acquiescence. "Sleep... sleep..."  
  
She could not but obey. Sighing softly, she gave way, just as Xemnas took his hands from her. Falling like a wounded bird, she tumbled down, only to be caught at the last second by Xemnas' hand grasping her left shoulder, fingers curling around her like serpents. A scarcely audible protest as Xemnas slipped his other hand beneath Aqua's thighs, and lifted her up into his arms.  
"Ohhhhhhh..." Aqua sighed, as Xemnas pulled her sylphlike figure against himself. One of her arms fell onto her stomach, the other dangling, swinging back and forth. Her fingers were relaxed, slightly curled inward. Aqua's willowy legs were suspended in the air, Xemnas' fingers firmly clutching Aqua's thighs, pressing into the rubbery material of her stockings, and the tender flesh underneath. Her calves bounced slightly as Xemnas cradled her, her body yielding and vulnerable in the villain's grasp.  
  
Aqua was still clinging onto consciousness, could still fell Xemnas' cold, not quite human touch on her feminine figure. Her neck bent backwards as he carried her, exposing her slim, soft throat. She couldn't even raise her head, her eyelids barely open, her eyes themselves rolling back as the spell of sleep mastered her. She moaned softly, not able even to form words, but aware of what was happening to her. What was Xemnas doing? Why was he... taking her like this? More to the point, why couldn't she stop him? Why was she in this humiliating position? She tried, one last time, to fight back, to use some magic or call her keyblade to hand or - or something. But she hadn't the strength. Even worse: her attempt at using the tiny portion of strength she did have exhausted her. Her vision went black. Her hearing faded. Her eyelids settled at last, and left her only with a memory ringing in her ears.  
" _You've seen me too weak, too often_ ," she'd said to Sora. But no. It was not weakness by which she had been overpowered, not this time. It was not weakness by which she had been tricked, ensorcelled and captured. It was the same reason that everything else that had gone wrong in her life had gone wrong: through faulty judgement. And it was with this bitter thought that Aqua fell unconscious, defeated and limp in Xemnas' arms.  
  
It was all too unfair. Had anyone ignorant of who all the actors in our scene were walked in on this sight, they would have deeply misinterpreted what they were seeing. A man cloaked in black, tall and broad and powerful, a formidable villain, bore in his arms a stunningly beautiful, helpless maiden, slim and delicate and feminine. Carried like a bride in his arms, the skirts of her costume flowing white, only reinforcing the shockingly evocative image. Doubtless the frail girl had fainted as he'd seized her, wilting sensuously in his grasp and falling instantly under some vampiric charm that her Byronic captor had about him. She was a weak and tremulous victim, an object of desire that this man-beast had plundered without effort. How could anyone have known, seeing Aqua as she was carried off, a precious, sumptuous prize, that she'd only a few minutes earlier beaten the absolute stuffing out of Xemnas, and his minions to boot? How could they have known that Xemnas was extremely fortunate not to have had his head cut off? But the perception didn't really matter much either way. The fact was, Xemnas had her. And, having her, he created the same kind of corridor as the one he'd arrived in, and vanished through it, bearing the fair maiden along with him: deceived, knocked out, and now - kidnapped.  
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
  
Much of what he'd had was lost. Much of what he'd known was gone. But small pieces remained, pieces of the realm Xemnas had ostentatiously called 'The World that Never Was', and its... similarly named castle. He had enough still to make use of. And so, when he stepped between worlds, he arrived somewhere that looked quite similar to where he'd just been: bare, stark-white walls. Grey floors. Light that came from nowhere and nothing. Huge windows that looked out onto a desolate, nightmarish cityscape. It was the perfect home for a Nobody.  
  
But this Nobody was not alone. Xemnas still bore his lovely, graceful burden in his arms. She was a soft thing, a warm and beautiful thing in a world that had for so long been so hard, so empty and frigid. Not that it meant anything to Xemnas, of course. He had captured Aqua because she could, potentially, be either a bargaining chip or an ally. Either she could be made to yield up to darkness and become a Nobody herself, or at the least made a backup vessel for Master Xehanort. There was a curious awareness of a distant connectedness between Aqua and some aspect of his contradictory nature, but that was all. Certainly not anything like an emotion. That was, for him, impossible.  
  
He laid Aqua down on a cold, metal surface, less a table than a seven-foot-long cuboid that just sort of emerged from the ground: the Castle that Never Was responded to its master's whims, after all.  
"Hnnnn..." Aqua breathed, as Xemnas laid her out. Her thighs bent inwards, her calves pointing outwards slightly. One of her arms lay relatively flat by her side, the other on her shapely, tightly confined bosom, her hand on her heart. Her pink lips were closed, her expression meek and peaceful. She was exquisitely defenceless. But it was not enough.  
  
He did not do it himself. He snapped his fingers, summoning two Nobodies to his presence. These were not like Marluxia or Larxene, though: they were truly mere shells, strong-willed enough to maintain form when becoming Heartless, but not enough to maintain their identities. They were Sorcerors, white husks that moved like liquid rubber, creeping and juddering about. Of all the inhuman Nobodies, these were among the strongest, and they answered only to Xemnas. Like men in thick, all-encompassing robes they folded their arms, bowing their faceless heads, awaiting his instruction: an instruction which was all too simple.  
"Shackle her."  
  
Instantly they set about the task. The first Sorceror surrounded Aqua in a thin skin of mystical energy, and raised her up into the air. Her head nodded forward, her limbs dangling in the air. The other Sorceror waved their arms, and from the ether poured metal, shooting straight for the ocean-haired damsel in their clutches. More to the point, _chains_ poured out, from four spheres of energy placed around Aqua's suspended body. Links of thin, shining silver seized her graceful figure, winding mercilessly around her torso, clanking with harsh metallic shouts as they bound her. They crushed her arms against her sides, pressing into the skin of her upper arms, squeezing from above and below the soft, ripe mounds of Aqua's bosom, making it jump and jiggle in a scandalously eye-catching fashion. Her shoulders were pressed up and in against her body, lending a note of captive shyness to Aqua's mien. The chains whipped around Aqua's defenceless figure like serpents, forcing her forearms to bend, to be pressed against each other. That position was then enforced, the chains wrapping around her arms and her wrists, box-tying the fallen warrior.   
  
Aqua's coltish legs were bound with even greater strictness. The chains ran down them like water, criss-crossing with their fiendish links first Aqua's thighs. If one stared - and oh, one might - one would have seen the tops of her stockings pinching a little into the tender flesh of that invitingly soft part of Aqua's body, a part which she chose to leave bare, a tantalising hint as to what lay beneath the tight, leathery-rubber of her clothes. But this subtle, sensuous effect was ruined as the chains forced her thighs together, wrapped around and around and around them, squeezing much tighter into Aqua's fair skin than her stockings did. The effect was not sexily teasing - it was forceful and rapacious, a clear and frightening statement of Aqua's imprisonment and captive, helpless position.  
  
The chains continued to spiral down Aqua's legs, twisting round just beneath her knees, criss-crossing with the skill of a master weaver around her slim calves, before winding definitively in what seemed like a half dozen circuits around Aqua's ankles, finally shackling the slumbering beauty. She hung in the air, drugged and chained, completely tied up from head to foot in bright silver, bowing humbly in her bondage. The Sorcerers lowered Aqua back down, not putting her again on her back, but lowering her to her knees, letting the maiden slump forward, her chest resting against her pretty thighs, penitent and chained.  
  
What did he think, this half-man, as he watched the sumptuous maiden being bound before his eyes? Might there have been pity? No - even if he'd had a heart, there was too much of Xehanort in him for that. Satisfaction? Perhaps something approaching that: he had his prize, after all. Pride, perhaps? That he had done what Master Xehanort could not: he had felled Master Aqua, even if through trickery rather than through martial skill. No, not even that. Perhaps something more primal? A man with a beautiful young woman in his fiendish clutches? No, that was in the realm of _passion_. This Xemnas could but imitate. But something disturbed him. Some pull, some reflection of a feeling that had never belonged to him - insofar as there was a _him_ to begin with.  
  
He had lied to them all, his companions in the Organisation, in _his_ Organisation. He had told them that Nobodies were doomed to be without hearts, that to restore themselves they needed to follow his plan. He wasn't sure how many had actually believed him. Xigbar was in on his real goal; Marluxia and Larxene had had their own ambitions; Axel was more or less a double agent - but Lexaeus, Xaldin, Zexion, Luxord and poor Saïx - they had been strung along. Even though their only purpose was as backup, to be Xehanort's needed Thirteen Darknesses. It was all a sham - so why had Xemnas proceeded? Why had he bothered trying to make his Artificial Kingdom Hearts, which could have actually been a _problem_ for Master Xehanort's plan? Because he was the only one of his companions that needed it. All of them would either have their hearts return, or else be recompleted if their Nobodies and Heartless were both destroyed. But not Xemnas. No, his heart was not his own. He was not just half of Master Xehanort. He was some... twisted, composite being formed from echoes of both Xehanort and Terra, destined to oblivion whether light or darkness won. Even his minions, his Sorcerers, could one day be whole. He never could.  
  
And then he felt... well it didn't matter what it was. The point was he _felt_. Something moved him. Something... was it sorrow? No, not that. Sharper. Harder, more painful than that, and it went outward. It went to... to her. To Aqua. He felt something toward her. Envy? Yes. Yes, envy was part of it, envy that she existed and he did not, that she was warm and beautiful while he was cold and empty. But it was more than that. Xemnas would not have been capable of feeling something that one of his forebears had not first felt for him. But what was it?  
  
"Unnhhh..." Aqua moaned, alerting Xemnas to her. She was coming to. She raised her head slightly, still weak. "Wh... where am I?" she mumbled, at first mistaking Xemnas' dungeon for the Chamber of Repose, and getting confused. Her vision was still dark, her eyes bleary. " _Can't... can't move..._ " she thought, though she could not explain why. She couldn't move her arms, her legs. They felt heavy. She felt weak. " _Am... I paralysed?_ " she wondered, not knowing _what_ kind of evil could have been done to her in her sleep. But no. She was not drugged, or hexed. "Ch...chains?" she said out loud, with a little fear in her voice. She was a prisoner. A captive.  
  
"Unhh...no... no!" Aqua shook her shoulders, twisted her chest from side to side, wriggled her slinky hips and fought with her lithe body against her bonds, but they held her fast. "Ngghh... nghhh!" It was mortifying, being stolen away and then - then tied up like some sacrificial victim. It was not only defeat she had brought on herself, but shameful capture. She'd heard tell of damsels in distress, bound and locked in high castles - hell, she'd even met one or two on her travels. But not she... not Master Aqua. It was not possible. It was not _right_! She could barely even sit up. The chains were thin, but they weighed more than they looked, holding her tight and holding her down. She managed, though, and saw Xemnas staring at her.  
  
"You awaken," he intoned. "I welcome you, fair master, to my castle. My ministrations shall not be tender... but neither shall I make of myself a torturer. One way... or another..." he said, making another grand gesture, "you shall fill the role my other self has laid out for you... as shall we all."  
Aqua looked at him as he spoke, and something in her gaze seemed to soften slightly, even show sympathy. "Terra...?"  
The use of the word caused greater disturbance in Xemnas' mind. "Why... do you use that name of me?"  
"Because you're right. I recognise that now," Aqua said, speaking softly. Gently. "There must be something of you in him."  
"Explain," Xemnas said, for once setting theatricality aside. "Explain why you are saying this."  
"Because only Terra," Aqua said, "would be bone-headed enough to think chains would be enough to hold an expert in _magic_." All gentleness vanished from her countenance, and with venom she spat: " _Thundaza!_ "  
  
But there was no thunder. There was no lightning. There was no magic of any kind. Terra might not have been the brightest bulb in the box, but Xehanort was, and Xemnas was, and he had indeed not been stupid enough to think mere chains would do the trick.  
"AUUUHHHH!" Aqua cried out, as at the first hint of her using magic of any kind the chains immediately began to shine with a threatening purple radiance. Aqua threw her head back, squirming desperately in her chains. "Wh...what's...happening to me? Ahhhhhh...!" It was not pain, exactly. It was _draining_. It was a deep draining, pulling the strength from her, sucking the power right out of her body. Her arms, her slender legs, her back - all her might, all her agility and coiled, catlike strength was slipping away. It wasn't like the spell Xemnas had cast on her before: she wasn't sleepy. She was just... weak. "My power..." she gasped, even speech becoming exhausting. "How are you... doing this?"  
  
"I am not a fool," Xemnas said. "I know what it takes to capture one like you. These chains will draw every drop of strength out of you. Your magic will be useless. For as long as the chains bind you, youu will not even have the strength to draw your Keyblade."  
"N-no...! No... nhhh... unnnnhhhhhhhh..." Aqua moaned, and found a shameful blush rising to her cheeks as her inner essence was stolen from her. "No... you... you can't... make me weak..." Aqua protested, but her denial was pointless. She felt the drain deepen, and as the insidious spell pulsed within her, her back arched. With a whimper she fell on her back, writhing sinuously in her chains.  
  
Xemnas watched her. Watched the shock and embarrassment on her face as she realised she'd been outwitted again. Watched her bosoms heave against her tight, corset-like top. Watched her long legs wriggle and shift against each other, watched as the chains squeezed her supple figure, emphasising every one of her body's many attractions. He watched her writhe and listened to her moan, the anger fading from her voice as she grew weaker, until her protests were helpless, dismayed sighs, and little more. He watched all this, and he realised that Aqua's mockery had had unwitting truth to it.  
  
"Unnnnnhhhhhhh..." Aqua fell back, the chains sucking out her power, the maiden panting and straining, but hardly able to wiggle her shoulders, much less escape her bonds, _much_ less attack with magic. She saw Xemnas approaching her, and tried to wriggle away from him, but didn't even have the strength for that. He grabbed her by the ankles, pulled her towards him so that her calves were dangling off the edge of the cuboid she'd been put on, and pulled her up into a sitting position. He looked at her ethereally charming features, features which were burned into echoes of memories from another life. He saw her wet, deep-blue eyes. He saw her lips, pink and moist and soft as silk. And he felt desire. Terra's desire.  
  
With strong arms he grasped Aqua by the waist, and tossed her helpless body over his shoulder, clutching her by the thighs with one hand, feeling her bosom bounce, then press against his back as he took her.  
"P... put me... down...!" Aqua demanded, aghast at Xemnas' boldness in seizing her the way he had, incensed by the clutching strength of his hand on her legs. Tossed over her captor like a sack - it was an absurd, an _obscene_ position for a Keyblade Master to find herself in, and she could hardly believe it was happening to her. Abducted, shackled and now - now just _taken_.  
  
But Xemnas was not taking her for himself. He summoned and walked through another dark corridor, bearing his gently writhing, shackled maiden over his shoulder, but he did not leave his world. He simply moved to another area in the portion that remained to him of his shattered castle.  
"Huh?" Larxene knew that Aqua had been captured. She'd been helpless, but had still watched as Xemnas took her: she'd come to the castle to lick her wounds in the chamber she'd claimed as her own. But she was surprised all the same when Xemnas, and Aqua, appeared before her. "Wh-what the hell do you want?" She had always been nervous in Xemnas' presence. Nervous that he would tire of her, and try to get rid of her. In her present state, though Nobodies healed quickly, she couldn't even fight him off.  
But he was not there to hurt her. On the contrary. "Larxene... long have I admired the viciousness and savagery you nurture within yourself. Surely will it lead you to the restoration you desire."  
"Uh... great," she replied. When he did not elaborate, she inquired: "What's with the broad? Don't you try to tell me you're going to be keeping her in here. You've got plenty of space for a dungeon in the rest of this dump!"  
"Keep her where you will," Xemnas said. "I merely give her over to your... care."  
  
Xemnas took Aqua off his shoulder, tossed her roughly onto the ground.  
"Unhhh...!" Aqua cried out, instinctively trying to summon her Keyblade, but only intensifying the draining effect of her chains, making her slump downwards onto the hard floor.  
"What do you mean 'care'?" Larxene said.  
"I mean do as you will with her... short of permanent harm... or death." Xemnas turned to leave. "Bring her despair, Larxene. Such is your talent." He took one long look at Aqua, meeting her half-lidded gaze. "Your power means nothing, Master Aqua. We have sealed it away. You... are ours. You... are _mine_."  
  
Saying this, Xemnas left, sweeping theatrically out of the small chamber. Larxene didn't even wait for him to be out of the room, however, before diving on Aqua.  
"Unhh!" Aqua grunted, as Larxene leapt upon her, holding the blue-haired beauty down, clamping her thin thighs on either side of Aqua's waist, squeezing and trapping her.  
"Oh man, you're _really_ pretty. I don't know why Xemnas gives a rat's ass about you bluebird, but if he wants me to take out some frustration on you... well then I'm happy to, babe."  
"To hell... with you..." Aqua replied, struggling to form the words of her retort. "You're... nothing... I beat you in a second..."  
"And?" Larxene laughed. "Didn't help you in the end. You're here..." She put one finger on Aqua's chest, twirling a little pattern between her breasts. "Aaaaaaall wrapped up in chains... all weak and floppy... all embarrassed and red cheeked, huh?" She flicked Aqua's nose, leaving an irritating little spark as she did.  
"Just... you're just Xemnas' lackey..." Aqua growled - or tried to anyway - still refusing to give up her struggles, even if it meant she was now rubbing her hips against Larxene's thighs. "You don't matter. You -"  
"Oh, _gawd_ , enough talking from _you_!"  
  
With a terrifyingly swift movement, she drew a dagger, made a quick, sharp swing. Aqua didn't even know what Larxene had done until she saw it in her hands - one of the trailing, blue-white skirts of Aqua's costume.  
"What are - MFFF!" Before Aqua knew it, the silky fabric had been pressed over her mouth, sealing her voice - gagging her. Larxene tied it off, pulling it tight, drawing out a shocked little whimper from the captive Xemnas had dumped on her. "Mphh! Mmmhhh-nnnmmmphhh!" Aqua moaned, gagged - with a piece of her own costume.  
"Oh yeah," Larxene crowed. "That's much better. You just go on whimpering, bluebird. _That_ sound, I like..."  
  
She did not see, and neither did Aqua, that Xemnas had not quite left. He was waiting near the doorway, listening to Larxene begin her torment of his supple prisoner. It satisfied him, and at last he knew why. For when he looked at Aqua, chained, humbled and lovely, it had not been carnal desire awoken within him, but desire of a different kind. He recalled the feelings of jealousy, of anger, of being looked down on and passed over in favour of - her. He felt a desire to bring her down to earth, a desire he knew had come from his other self. For the first time in his unlife, Xemnas wanted something.  
  
He wanted to _humiliate_ her.


End file.
